Just a Bit Off

In order to convince Megan to move to Los Angeles, I had to give her the hard sell about California. One of the points I repeatedly hit upon, especially during our hot, humid DC summers and monumental DC snowstorms, was that its always 75 degrees and sunny in LA.

Well... that's not always true. There is some variation. Today, for example, is one of those few days that its a little bit hotter than 75. The high in downtown LA today hit 113. But that's kinda far away. We live a lot closer to Santa Monica, so let's look at that temp today. Oh, that was just 96. With no breeze. In late September.

For those of you who didn't know or don't remember, our apartment doesn't have air conditioning. It's one small thing we overlooked. I guess we saw the thermostat for the heater and just assumed that it also controlled an A/C unit.

No A/C and high heat does not make for a comfortable apartment. It's about 9:45 right now and it's still about 80-85 degrees inside. Outside has just started to cool down, but our three little windows and small fan are just no match. It's going to be a hot one tonight.

Oh, and since I hate throwing away food so much, I decided to finish off the soup that Meg made me last week. Mmmmm.... hot soup.

Venues

Yesterday Mike and I took a big first step in planning our wedding. We're about 95% decided that we want to have the wedding here in LA, and we spent the afternoon looking at potential venues for the ceremony and the reception. Neither of us have been involved in planning a wedding before, so we are really starting from scratch trying to figure out what we need, what we want, and what we have no desire to have around on our big day.

The first place we looked at is a historic building near the ocean in Long Beach called The Ebell Club. It has three large main rooms with high ceilings, sky lights, large doorways, tile floors, and balconies. The middle room is where they would set up for the ceremony. It has huge skylights providing tons of natural light and a large mosaic tile fountain in front of which we be wed. After the ceremony, folks would be escorted through the doors  on the left for cocktail hour, during which the staff would change the set up from ceremony chairs to the dance hall. I'm told that this takes 2.5 minutes max, which I'm a little skeptical about. After cocktails (and our pictures, etc.) the doors to the third room would be opened for dinner. At that point, all three rooms are open and guests can make their way from the dining room to the bar to the dance hall. The event manager with whom we met was very kind and for the most part said "whatever you want to do, we can find a way to make it happen." 

The second venue at which we looked was much closer to home, called The Victorian in Santa Monica. This venue is an old house. The ceremony would be held upstairs in a room that is quite large but very oddly shaped so that the guests would not have a great vantage point of the ceremony. Cocktail hour would be on the patio which is beautifully decorated with twinkle lights, candles, and huge old-timey looking bar, but it's right on the busy downtown Santa Monica street. Dinner and dancing after is on the first floor in a room that opens up onto another patio giving a very indoor-outdoor feel. The house itself is well decorated, which would cut down on what we would need to provide, but with average ceilings, the location right on the street, and the odd shaped ceremony room, it was my least favorite of the two.

We are going to keep looking of course. There are tons of places out here to look at. We are also starting to figure out what is most important to us; we want to make sure our guests -- who have traveled near and far (but mostly far) to celebrate with us -- have a blast. 

80's Party? Yep, 80's Party!

"Why in the world did people ever wear these ridiculous outfits?" That was my primary thought most of the night last night as about 250 first years gathered at V Lounge in Santa Monica to celebrate the end of Orientation and the beginning of classes with an 80's Party. We saw all kinds of ridiculousness, including legwarmers, fanny packs, spandex, and linen suits. The cast of characters included: Rainbow Bright; Mario, Luigi and Yoshi; multiple Magnum PI's; both officers on CHiPs; Maverick in both a flight suit and dress whites; seven inhabitants of Sesame Street; and multiple Daniel-sons.

Meg and I got into character as a 80's rocker chick and Marty McFly. Amazingly, Meg knitted her own legwarmers, one bright pink, the other neon blue, to go along with fishnet stockings she already had and a cutout t-shirt she picked up on the cheap from Goodwill. I grabbed a denim jacket and red vest also from Goodwill and threw it together with a borrowed skateboard and some other clothes to do my best impression of Michael J. Fox in Back to the Future.



(Click on photo for bigger picture)

Overall the night was a lot of fun, but also really ridiculous. Why a bunch of 20 and 30 year old's spent so much time thinking of and creating costumes is beyond me (even though I did the same). I guess it's just an excuse to relive our college years one last time.

On a side note, while the 80's certainly missed the boat in terms of fashion, they definitely got the music right. Lots of incredible rock songs like "Livin' On a Prayer" and "Don't Stop Believing" (or as Meg likes to call it "Streetlight People"), awesome hip-hop songs like anything Michael Jackson and some great 80's style music that's great to sing and dance to like "Take On Me" and "Whip It." Music during the last decade just can't hang with those awesome songs.

"You Look Like You're Making Chicken Soup"

That is what the clerk at the grocery store stated as she was checking me out this afternoon. Carrots, celery, chicken, noodles, broth, and a couple cans of Campbell's for back up. Now, I'm not a huge soup eater, but Mike is, and the best thing to eat when sick is soup. That's right, sick. The day before his first classes and Mike has what we think is the flu. Aches, congestion, and a low-grade fever dominated his day (and mine, too.) So I whipped up some chicken noodle soup for the first time. It was a far cry from the steak, corn, and brussel sprouts we grilled last night (that's right, I said brussel sprouts, Dad. Roasted with olive oil and orange zest, and they were delicious) but mostly hit the mark as that timeless comfort food. It hasn't cured my poor Mikey, but I'm hoping it made him feel a wee bit better.

Dr. Kaufman (or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Teaching)

This being business school and us being "the future business leaders of America" UCLA tries its bestest to instill in us some sense of social responsibility. In fact, one of the things about Anderson that I didn't see at a lot of other schools was a genuine sense of social responsibility among not only the administration, but also the student body. Throughout orientation I've had a chance to see that giving spirit first hand as we've raised a not insignificant amount of money for Challenge 4 Charity. (Exact figures will be released later).

Today, we spent all morning in an elementary classroom teaching underprivileged kids about entrepreneurship, financial literacy and work readiness through a program called Junior Achievement. Having a small group of successful young professionals in their lives for a few hours can obviously make a huge impact on these kids (emphasis on the CAN).

I spent my morning with 4 teammates at Cienega Elementary School teaching 4th graders all about human, capital and natural resources, income, expenses and the business decision making process. According to the principal, Cienga has been an under performing school for quite some time. It is about 82% Hispanic and 17% African-American; about 50% of students are learning English as a second language.

I have to say that I enjoyed being there today, even though our lesson plan was lacking and our organization hectic at best. I feel like I was able to really make a connection with a couple of students and hopefully provided them with not only a little knowledge, but also a positive example. Obviously, I never had any of the hardships they have had (single parent homes, poverty, learning a second language, etc.), but hopefully they will see me and realize that there is opportunity out there that awaits us all, including them.

L'shanah Tovah

"L'shanah tovah," meaning "for a good year," is one of many new words and phrases I learned over the past week and a half. This is the first year that I've celebrated the High Holy Days, including Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, with Mike. Last week, we went to the UCLA Hillel for Rosh Hashanah service, and yesterday we celebrated Yom Kippur (I've included links for those that aren't familiar with the significance of these days. I know I wasn't so I've been doing lots of reading.) I was looking forward to the holidays this year as a chance to better understand the Jewish faith and traditions. I now know just enough to realize how little I know. The services I attended were full of symbolism and tradition, unfamiliar songs and prayers, horns and scrolls (the Torah), not to mention a different language and alphabet, and I was continually whispering to Mike "What is this?" and "Why do you do that?".

I strongly believe that it is important - perhaps critical - to understand and appreciate religions and traditions other than one's own. It can provide a small glimpse into the minds and motivations of entire races of people. In my case, I learned more about my future husband and his family, and for this I'm very grateful. I was also able to participate in some of the traditions - casting bread into the ocean, touching the Torah with the service book, and while I didn't fast I did partake in the break the fast dinner with Mike and one of our friends.

Finally a fun fact: according to the Hebrew calendar we have just entered the year 5771. 

What I Really Do in Business School...

...throw pies at people...


(Dad, aren't you proud of that form!)

... and have a dance party (no picture available, sorry). The reason orientation is 2.5 weeks long is due to the fact that we actually take a 2-unit course that lasts about five days in addition to getting "oriented" to UCLA Anderson. Today marked the end of that class, meaning we had a two hour final exam followed a Luau party. The Luau included catered Hawaiian BBQ, a bounce house, drinks and a DJ who somehow managed to convince a bunch of late 20 and early thirty somethings to break out into a spontaneous dance party. This was a family friendly fun event, so Meg joined in the fun. We busted some moves on the dance floor, the first time in about four years. I'm not sure if its because I'm back in college or because I now have a wedding for which to practice, but Meg dragged me out there for a good 30-45 minutes. I have to say, I'm a little rusty, but I've still got it!

After the Luau, most of us headed out to Barney's Beanery in Westwood. Wednesday night and Thursday afternoon are apparently the big drinking nights at Anderson (in addition to Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights). I thought I was going to grad school, but apparently I'm back in college. COLLEGE!!!

Business School

While Meg gets to play around in the kitchen and explore all kinds of all new cooking styles and flavors, I am busy slaving away at school. Here's some photographic evidence...



That's one of my classmates and me atop the "High V" at the ropes course on campus. We spent all day Monday at the ropes course learning all kinds of lessons about leadership, teamwork and communication while getting to play around in harnesses and jump off of thirty foot poles to an awaiting trapeze swing. It was a great day outside, bonding with my classmates, and decompressing a little bit after our first week back in school.

Doing What I Love

For those that know me well (and those that are getting to know me through the blog) you know that one of the things I find the most joy in doing is cooking. I love cooking. I love chopping, dicing, slicing, seasoning, pan frying, braising, roasting, mixing, (newly) grilling, grocery shopping, and probably most of all, eating. With all the time on my hands now, I've been experimenting with new recipes, techniques, even foods. Last night I made Bacon-Wrapped Figs and Honeyed Goat Cheese Figs for appetizers. For the tailgate this past weekend I made Roasted Corn and Black Bean Salad and a Tortellini and Green Bean Dijon Salad (inspired by Furin's for the D.C.-ites, a salad joint and bakery that I frequented). Today I made Spicy Beef Potstickers and Chicken and Grilled Veggie Lettuce Wraps. I get such a thrill making new and delicious dishes. Yesterday I was admiring a basket of hot peppers that I got at the farmer's market and picked out a bright orange and red one and commented to Mike that this pepper in particular looked "exciting". Who thinks jalapeños are exciting? Me, that's who.

For the past several months, Mike has suggested that I look for a job, even a part-time gig, with a small catering company. It would give me the chance to learn and practice the trade, and perhaps more importantly,  give me a sense as to whether or not being a chef/cook/caterer is my life's calling. I guess if there is a time to make a leap, now is it.

UCLA football game

We`re at our first home game and we are loving it. Meg made some delic tailgate food and now we are sitting behind the band at the game. Go Bruins!!

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

My First Celebrity Sighting

As I was walking through the bakery aisle at our local grocery store this afternoon, picking up much needed supplies for tomorrow's tailgate such as hot dog buns, I had my first celebrity sighting. For those that know me well, I'm a huge fan of the recently completed television series "Lost". I own the first 5 seasons on DVD (still need the last one, hint hint, for anyone looking to buy me an early Christmas present) and I've probably watched them all at least twice, and the earlier seasons at least three times. I'm even one of the few fans that actually liked the ending (I mean, how else where they going to end it? And besides, C.J. Craig killed someone, how much better does it get?) I digress. So as I'm wandering around the store looking for the hot dog buns, I walk past William Mapother. I think to myself "This guy looks so familiar. Did I go to school with him? No. Did I meet him at Mike's happy hours? No... but I know him from somewhere..." Then all the sudden I was overwhelmed with the urge to run away because I was afraid he was going to kidnap me and stick needles in my belly and hang Charlie in a tree. It was Ethan!!

P.S. - He is kinda scary in real life. He has longer hair now, and when I saw him at the store, the only reason I recognized him is because he was wearing this same, creepy expression on his face!

I didn't approach him or talk to him, though I did spot him again near the broccoli. Poor guy didn't need to be bothered, he was just trying to get his daily dose of Vitamins C and K.

First Day of Class

Yesterday marked my first day back at school, but today I started my first class. As I mentioned yesterday, five of the twelve days we spend on campus during orientation are spent taking a class on leadership. As seems to be usual for business school, we started off class with an ice breaker - 4 lies and a truth. The game basically consists of getting into a group and everyone telling the class a bizarre fact about themselves and one person lying. The game was entertaining and allowed all of us to share embarrassing stories with people we've know for about 30 hours. I broke out my four spleen story, which definitely brought about some weird looks.

Anyways, we finally got going with real class, analyzing some reading we had been assigned the week before. This being UCLA, of course there was the obligatory John Wooden reference which was accompanied by a video on his thoughts on leadership.

The two most interesting exercises involved filling out a Strength Deployment Inventory personality test and solving a "Who Done It?" The SDI test is a positive/negative test that seems to be geared more towards business and management. Regardless, I scored as a blend between Altruistic/Nurturing and Analytical/Autonomizing (with a slight learn towards the analytical side). My "Conflict Sequence" or my expected behavior when facing a conflict indicates that I am the type of person who meets conflict with flexibility, which can sometimes be seen as unpredictability (especially by those who don't know me well). I'd have to say that both are pretty accurate, although I've always thought of myself as more analytical than altruistic.

The "Who Done It?" saw us brake into groups of three and try to determine who killed Robert Guion. After about 50 minutes of reading through the case and discussing it with my team, we settled on Eddie, the handyman. (Yes, I know this means nothing to you). When the entire class got back together and began to discuss the case, we realized that there were multiple versions of the case, each with slightly different information. Turns out the whole thing was not an exercise for our analytical ability, but it was meant to teach us about the importance of diversity when creating teams. Instead of just turning to the people sitting next to you to form your team (all of whom had the same version of the packet), we were supposed to seek out people with different opinions and information. I'm guessing this will not be the last exercise that conveys a meaning different than what appears on the surface. But that's why I'm here, to learn something more about business and to stretch myself.

First Day of School

Today was my first day back in school in more than four years. Luckily, it was just orientation, so no real classes yet. Not much to report about really, mostly it was just administrative stuff and ice breakers (yes, I'm back in middle school and doing ice breakers again). Tomorrow, however, is a different story, as tomorrow we start Leadership Foundations, a 2-unit course about (you guessed it) leadership. It runs over five days during throughout orientation and is suppose to help us transition back into the life of a student, which, as Meg said tonight, means that I have homework and will no longer be any fun at night. Hopefully, I'll be on top of that homework and won't completely ignore my soon to be wife (still weird to say, especially because we still don't know when the wedding will be). I'll try not to bore you with the details of my life as a student in the future, and just provide updates when we do interesting things like trips, happy hours, and beach days. In the meantime, happy new year to all of you who celebrate it this time of year.

New Stuff

Today we fulfilled our consumer duty and went to Lowe's and Ikea to make three big purchases. First stop, Lowe's Home Improvement store and purchased a grill. It's a small, two burner gas grill that we got on sale as summer is coming to a close. Mike spent the evening putting it together in the hopes that we could fire it up for dinner and have some grilled chicken. Three hours and one frustrated break later, we finally got it out on the patio. There is about 2 feet of space between it and the side of our apartment, just enough to probably get badly burned one day.

Our other purchases from were from Ikea - a large green area carpet and a huge bookcase. Both look great, adding some color to the room and some much needed shelves for the many many books that we have. The bookcase only took me about an hour and a half to put together and decorate. But needless to say, tonight was a frozen pizza dinner night. And now our apartment is really put together and looks goooooood!

Dealing with Traffic

I spent most of Thursday at the DMV officially becoming a California resident again. As many people pointed out, you can make an appointment online with the DMV and reduce some of the wait time. Unfortunately, appointments need to be scheduled at least 2-3 weeks in advance in the LA area, meaning that the week and a half I had before school starts to take care of this annoying little task did not allow me to schedule an appointment in advance. So, after six hours of standing in lines, sitting in chairs and waiting in my car, I got my driver's license and CA plates.

I actually lucked out a little bit by having a great teller once I got to the counter. This women was extremely sarcastic, but knew how to get things done. Because of her, I was actually able to skip ahead in one line and not have to make a return trip for my license plates. Also, because I once had a CA driver's license, I got to take the renewal exam instead of the new driver test. Even though that only saved me from having to answer an additional 18 questions, it made things just a little easier after a long day.

Megan took some pics of me changing the plates. Enjoy.

Brand New Me

Many of the posts that we've made to the blog have in a roundabout way talked about the changes we've gone through over the past 2 months or so. For me it is worth explicitly calling out some of the bigger ones because they are a large part of our journey. When starting out on this adventure, I wanted to take this opportunity to become a better me - not necessarily a "new" me (don't worry, there won't be any Hollywood plastic surgery or anything), but a better version of who I already am. For example, I hate exercising. I find it tedious, unsatisfying, and I can almost always find something else to do with my time. But, since we decided we were moving and starting over, I've decided that I need to be healthier. So I've been running, working out on my Wii Fit, and eating healthier. And I'm already seeing results!

Another thing that has changed is my hair. Naturally, it is straight with a bit of a wave that makes it look messy. In college, I had curly hair for a few years, and I loved it. It was easy to manage, fun and just different enough to feel like it set me apart in some way. So, the week after I left work, I curled my hair, and haven't regretted it for a moment.

Last but certainly not least, I've made a major adjustment to the way that I think about the future. I'm the type of person that feels most comfortable when everything is planned out, organized, and predictable. From the moment that Mike and I decided to move to the Left Coast, I knew that I was going to have to let go of that need to plan and cede some of the control. First, it meant I needed to fully hand over some of the moving and planning responsibilities to Mike, and trust that he would take care of them (so hard to do for a control-freak!). Next, I was going to have to be flexible. For example, we didn't know when our stuff would be delivered until after the movers picked us up, and even then they changed it the day before. So for the whole trip across the country, we were continually making plans as we went. And finally, I had to operate with a certain amount of "unknown." When I first got here, I only knew how to get to a few places (campus, the grocery store, maybe the airport if I really had to.) I could count on one hand the people I knew in the area. I hadn't started looking for a job, yet, either. In short, there have been lots of "mental" challenges along the way, but I think embracing the changes and challenges and jumping in with both feet has been most rewarding. It is actually fun to fly by the seat of your pants, and have faith and confidence that everything will be just fine. Maybe my new laissez faire world-view means I'm already becoming a Californian! ... nah.